


[Draft] On Patronage in the RMN [v0.5]

by Aoife



Category: Proceedings of the Royal Manticoran Navy Institute
Genre: Book: Call of Duty, Book: Cauldron of Ghosts, Book: House of Steel, Book: Shadow of Freedom, Fictional Essay, Gen, Inspired by: Invisible Ficathon, Meta-Essay, Royal Manticoran Navy, Written In-Universe, patronage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-27
Updated: 2014-01-27
Packaged: 2018-01-10 07:18:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1156702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Aoife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[A partial essay written as if within the Honorverse on the subject of Patronage]</p><blockquote>
  <p> [...] there is still a healthy and thriving system of Patronage within the RMN, but the nepotism of the last century has been all but banished [...]</p>
</blockquote>
            </blockquote>





	[Draft] On Patronage in the RMN [v0.5]

**Author's Note:**

> There's a real world version of this essay that I work on, on and off, that compares Michelle Henke and Michael Oversteegen's experiences of nepotism and patronage in the Navy - and I may come back and add new sections to this as I rewrite the "real world essay" to be in a PoV that suggests it's from within canon (taking into account what is and isn't likely to be known).

> [DRAFT] On Patronage in the Royal Manticoran Navy [V0.5]*
> 
> (Examples include Duchess Harrington, Countess Gold Peak, Earl White Haven, Baroness New Dehli, Admiral Oversteegen, Captains Cardones and Tremaine and sundry others, deceased. 1)
> 
> * * *
> 
> [...] When Duchess Harrington partook of her midshipwoman's cruise in the later part of the 19th Century, PD, the Royal Manticoran Navy (RMN) was still within the grips of the same sort of pernicious patronage-based system that had nearly cost us the Kingdom when Axelrod of Old Terra came calling2 [...]
> 
> [...] if one examines the composition of her academy class, which consisted of some two-hundred and something individuals, one finds that despite her mother's lofty off-world birth3, Duchess Harrington was both amongst the most lowly-born of her classmates and one of the rare individuals without an established military lineage4.
> 
> While the Duchess had her patrons from the beginning of her career5, compare her initial posting to the elderly War Maiden to the far easier postings of her more highly born peers - including Countess Gold Peak's two years earlier - and if one reads between the lines of her interactions with both Pavel Young and Elvis Santino [...]
> 
> Perhaps mostly starkly evocative is the comparitive time periods it took for the following officers - who all joined the "Peacetime" RMN - to rise from the rank of Ensign to Captain (SG): Pavel Young6 \- 16 years; Prescott Tremaine - 21 years; Duchess Harrington - 23 years; Alistair McKeon - 29 years; Countess Gold Peak - 35 years.
> 
> The Countess Gold Peak's aversion to the Patronage system is well known, and there is intra-service speculation that [...]
> 
> * * *
> 
> 1 several promising young officers in the Grande Alliance were considered for inclusion, but I was remembered that they are, in fact, members of our Allies' Navies, and to consider them in this thesis would be impolitic. They have however, benefitted from the more benign system we now operate under, and I wish them all the best in their future careers.
> 
> 2 to whit, the inefficiencies and politicking that left the Navy neither able to properly maintain its ships nor to effectively oppose the ill-fated project to make two "sloops" out of one Battlecruiser. The only one launched, MPARS Phobos, being lost with all hands.
> 
> 3 as our current closer alliance with Beowulf has undoubtedly reminded people, Duchess Harrington's maternal line is the Benton-Ramirez y Chous. While the Beowulfan system is fiercely equalitarian, a simple rule of thumb would to be consider them as one of several equivalents to the House of Winton on Beowulf, as when a Benton-Ramirez y Chou enters politics, they invariably end up on the Planetary Board of Directors for as long as they wish.
> 
> 4 Alfred Harrington was both a Marine Sergeant and a Surgeon Captain, but he was never a Line Officer, and prior to him, Harrington family "government" service was almost exclusively as part of the Sphinixian Ranger Service.
> 
> 5 it has been suggested that Admiral Bachfisch, and the late Admiral Raoul Courvosier were instrumental in finding her a midshipman's berth; indeed discrete investigations suggest that despite the Duchess' high placement in her class, she was originally among those not assigned to a Ship. Admiral Courvosier was also instrumental in saving her career after the Caismir incident.a
> 
> 6 I refrain from using an honorifics for the late - and unlamented - Pavel Young; as the Earl of North Hollow's heir, the speed of his promotion should be considered in the upper percentiles for those with aristocratic/naval lineages and a wilingness to explot the system.
> 
> * * *
> 
> ~~a~~ I know, I'll take the reference out. But Caisimir's in the Public domain on Beowulf ... and that either he saved her career or her Beowulfan family did. And anyone who still gets mad over it when we've invaded Mesa probably needs arrested.
> 
> ~~*~~ if you're reading this in anything below V0.7.5, I know this format's wrong for the Proceedings, [...]

**Author's Note:**

> Formatting Notes: the two last footnotes are suppose to be crossed through, but that's illegible on Reversi, so I removed it.


End file.
